2008 Team Sarcoma / West German Cancer Center, Team Sarcoma / Das Lebenhaus and Team Sarcoma / Essen University Hospital

Germany l 2008 Events

As an opener for Team Sarcoma 2008 we organised an evening with information about sarcomas. Different sarcoma specialists answered questions for the patients and care givers. This kind of “patient education” will take place at the University Cllinic of Essen on a regular basis.

The third German Team Sarcoma event then took place on Saturday the 26.07.2008. Around 2 PM all participants arrived at the Essener Grugahalle. Among the participants were patients, care-givers, representatives of the patient organsiation Das Lebenshaus, surgeons, oncologists, radiologists and more. Exactly at 2 PM a thunder storm arrived also. Therefore we had to wait until the tour could start.

After 30 Minutes of waiting we started the tour in a light drizzle, which some minutes later turned again into a real hard rain. At the beginning we all rode on through the rain. But as the thunder became stronger, we voted for a break in a nearby cafe.

During the break we heavily discussed if we should continue the tour or if we return to our starting point. Because the rain and especially the thunder storm would not stop we decided after an hour long break to stop the tour and return. All participants then returned to the Campus of the Univerrsity of Essen to have a barbeque. Before the start of the barbeque the staff of the clinic helped us with dry clothes. For the barbeque we had dry weather.

Although there was no mountain stage and no real “winners” because of the stopped tour, there was an award ceremony after we finished the food.

All participants agreed in the end that this tour should be repeated next year to raise the public awareness for “sarcoma knows no borders.”

The tour and the barbeque were organised by: Dr. Sebastian Bauer and Dr. Georg Täger (both University of Essen), Karin Pelzing and Kai Pilgermann (both of Das Lebenshaus).

Special thanks and greetings go to: Bruce, Lee Ann and Marina (to name only those who we personally know) from the USA for their work in the different sarcoma initiatives.

This report is also available in PDF format with additional photos.